The (Down) Beat Goes On In The Media

The branches of the media that do this have become lying traitors and they can’t be trusted.

Media: Four years ago this week, we noted how negative coverage of the Iraq War had become. But that was when things weren't going well. This is now, when things are going much better. So coverage must be much more positive, right?

Actually the war was not going that badly.

However the left was stretching figures including whomever they wanted in their death list (the government does NOT release such a figure). The left was pushing for a big number throughout the year (e.g. 1,000 or 1,500). They even included a woman who died while crossing the highway in Kansas while on leave. Hey, anything to meet the quota. The Left does NOT care about the dead, they are just numbers. There were plenty who'd died in Kuwait on base of things like forklift accidents. Sad loss but not the "wrongful death, died for a lie" that the left has claimed.

Does anyone here what also happened in 2004? Something that turned the tide on the war? Both emboldened the so called insurgency (led to foreign nationalists joining the war) and turned of domestic support for the mission?

The uncle of one of the men who'd been charged in the Abu Ghraib scandal and was already being prosecuted and unable to secure a plea bargain, his uncle released the photos to the media (blackmailing our government failed).

The NY Times kept the story on page one for 30 days. Ted Kennedy proclaimed equivalence to the Saddam Hussein regime, that AG had just reopened under new management. Hunter S. Thompson writing for ESPN proclaimed it worse than the most horrific NAZI atrocities.

Michael Moore felt jilted because similar imagery was going to be the unexpected sucker punch in his forthcoming film, Fahrenheit 9/11.

A week after the photos were released, a man was murdered on camera by Islamic terrorists. They claimed it was in retaliation for the horrors of Abu Ghraib.

Except the timeline does not match. Nick Berg had been kidnapped a month beforehand. When it was not a publicly known scandal (some Congressmen had been contacted, including Hillary Clinton, but it wasn't something in the daily news).

Another kidnapping victim (from Halliburton? Brown & Root?) had escaped his captors just before the AG scandal broke. The kidnapped hostages were posing a risk to the kidnappers; this man talked and told details of his capture and imprisonment (tried to describe the place and people involved).

Nick Berg provided a foil and something to say this was all "America's fault". The media which had had no problems airing the AG photos and calling them the worst atrocities were unwilling to air the jihadi snuff film.

Soon there were more films. Morale sank and the terrorists had gone to war.

Forget anything?

The newspapers sacrificed their readership to deliver their narrative that life is bad and negative under W. But no one wants to be assaulted by incessant negativity on a daily basis -- liberal, conservative, or independent.

Now all these "truth teller" reporters will look for work in corporate communications jobs and spin for the man, or come up with clever copy to sell mustard.

Then there's the Limbaugh paradigm. Offer something positive -- most who listen will agree that Rush is nothing if not optimistic -- and bank $400 million for your effort.

I love this country.

Here is a reminder of just what we went through 4 years ago in the media. My comments and the selection of then current articles were all culled in November 2004 just after the election.

ZOGBYISM - the term for the media's coordinated campaign to influence the 2004 election.

Here is the timeline for some events (many of which Ramsey Clark figured into, but then I started to track Abu Ghraib to recall the name of the operative who helped bring it to the media):

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Did we REALLY live through such a sustained period of distortions? No wonder the mainstream media doesn't like us archiving data here. Just the headlines alone are damning.

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Ramsey Clark Role in Setting Rather's Saddam Interview Overstated, CBS Now Says (Posted on 03/01/2003)

Bush accused of supporting Haitian rebels (Posted on 02/28/2004)

Picture of Kerry with Ramsey Clark at 1971 "Peace Conference (Posted on 02/11/2004)

Ramsey Clark Endorses John Kerry (Posted on 03/01/2004)

Ramsey Clark: An American Traitor (Posted on 03/08/2003)

Articles of Impeachment of President George W. Bush [Ramsey Clark Alert] (Posted on 03/19/2003)

IMPEACHMENT ACTIONS AGAINST THE PRESIDENT BY John Conyers (D-Mich.)& Ramsey Clark (Posted on 03/13/2003)

Heads Up... from Michael Moore (Posted on 04/26/2004)

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush?....I oppose the U.N. or anyone else risking the lives of their citizens to extract us from our debacle...the majority of Americans supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let that maybe -- just maybe -- God and the Iraqi people will forgive us in the end.

Michael Moore admits Disney 'ban' was a stunt (Posted on 05/06/2004)

U.S. calls for Arab retractions (Posted on 05/09/2004)
The terrorists who killed Nick Berg would have had opportunity to see these images in the press and link them with the "Abu Ghraib scandal":

The day after a WorldNetDaily report revealed that photos circulating in the Middle East that depict GI's raping Iraqi women were fake and had originated from pornography sites, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo issued a statement calling on Arab news outlets to publish retractions.
The embassy statement read, "We have done a thorough investigation of the origin of these photos and have conclusive evidence that they originated on a pornographic web site. They are clearly staged photos, done by actors, as the site itself states."
The Al Wafd newspaper published four photographs on the top of its front page that were alleged show American soldiers sexually abusing female prisoners in Iraq. Al Osboa and Al Mussawer published two of the same photos
The U.S. Embassy called the publication of these pornographic photos, with headlines alleging the involvement of U.S. soldiers, a "fundamental violation of journalistic integrity," and stated that their publication needlessly inflamed an already heated atmosphere.

Abuse photos 'were staged in UK' (Posted on 05/11/2004)

Nick Berg's Father and International A.N.S.W.E.R.(Posted on 05/11/2004) (note this thread agitated the left)

Media ethics, consistency questionable in release of photos" (Posted on 05/11/2004)

DJs Who Laughed At Beheading Are Fired (Portland, Ore.) (Posted on 05/13/2004)

Press calls prisoner coverage 'balanced' (Posted on 05/12/2004)

Anyone see the Berg video yesterday on cable news?(Posted on 05/12/2004)

(Daily Mirror) Editor sacked over 'hoax' photos (Posted on 05/14/2004)

Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan has been sacked after the newspaper conceded photos of British soldiers abusing an Iraqi were fake. In a statement the Mirror said it had fallen victim to a "calculated and malicious hoax" and that it would be "inappropriate" for Morgan to continue.

NOTE: Those were the photos of a "soldier" urinating on a "prisoner". This was done using official equipment (that was not dispatched) suggesting that it was an inside smear job of the British military. I have not read up this story in recent months to see how the investigation is going. No wonder the terrorists got angry enough to cut a man's head off in revenge. The blood of the hostages is on the hands of radicals in the press who blindly pursued an agenda of ousting President Bush.

Those fake rape photos: Boston Globe attempts cover-up of fake rape pix (Posted on 05/14/2004)

See More Hersh (Seymour Hersh) (Posted on 05/14/2004)

This ghost is investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.
In 1969 as a freelance writer Hersh wrote a story for the tiny Left-wing Dispatch News Service run by his neighbor David Obst. The story, based on Hersh’s stateside interviews with soldiers back from Vietnam, was about what came to be called the “My Lai Massacre.”
This story, with its vivid portrayal of alleged American atrocities, was perfect for the propaganda purposes of the anti-war Left. The liberal media echoed and amplified Hersh’s report into front page news – and in the process turned him overnight into a journalist superstar, winner of the first of four career George Polk Awards, the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting and other honors.
Such fame is an intoxicating drug. When your story sits atop the world news wires, the telephone rings constantly – are you available to appear tomorrow on the Today Show? On CBS News? To give a speech Saturday for $25,000? It was a magical moment in Hersh’s life that he has tried again and again to recapture with shocking stories – but never quite succeeded.
And so once again Sy Hersh is making news with his investigations “Torture at Abu Ghraib: American Soldiers Brutalized Iraqis. How Far Up Does the Responsibility Go?” in the May 10 New Yorker magazine and “Chain of Command: How the Department of Defense Mishandled the Disaster at Abu Ghraib” in its May 17 issue.

AL-JAZEERA: BEHEADING A FAKE (Posted on 05/14/2004)

Rooting for the Enemy... (Posted on 05/16/2004)

A MAN has his head cut off by al Qaeda in Iraq, and The New York Times aggressively markets the idea - on its front page yesterday - that his death is somehow the fault of the United States...

"Don’t Let Abu Ghraib Overturn Our Success" (Posted on 05/16/2004)

Prior to the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom last year, I wrote that we would not find easy allies among the Iraqi people. It had nothing to do with Muslim disdain for Westerners. It had nothing to do with Iraqi fears of Western colonization. It had nothing to do with oil. It had completely to do with the average Iraqi’s horrific fear of his own government and its vast network of informants and enforcers.
The average Iraqi still possesses that fear. This cannot be emphasized enough. There remain very few Iraqi citizens willing to risk their lives in a public show of support for U.S. and coalition forces given the longstanding tendency of our civilian leadership to cut and run when the political establishment and their news media allies turn up the heat. And despite President Bush’s insistence on staying the course, he has already relented somewhat by promising to relinquish power to the Iraqis on a very premature June 30.
The recent flap over prisoner mistreatment will not help.

Lawmakers Told of POW Abuse Months Ago (Posted on 05/16/2004)

Two months before pictures of Iraqi prisoner abuse became public, the family of one accused soldier wrote to 14 members of Congress that "something went wrong" involving "mistreatment of POWs" at Abu Ghraib prison.
Separately, a suspended Army officer in Iraq wrote to Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania that he was being unfairly punished after "pictures of naked prisoners" were discovered. He sent the letter six weeks before the CBS program "60 Minutes II" first broadcast photographs of the prisoners on April 28.
HERE IS THAT LIST:
Carl Levin (Michigan)
Edward M. Kennedy (Massachusetts)
Robert C. Byrd (West Virginia)
Joseph I. Lieberman (Connecticut)
Jack Reed (Rhode Island)
Daniel K. Akaka (Hawaii)
Bill Nelson (Florida)
E. Benjamin Nelson (Nebraska)
Mark Dayton (Minnesota)
Evan Bayh (Indiana)
Hillary Rodham Clinton (New York)
Mark Pryor (Arkansas)
HARDLY a bunch of Bush defenders.

Sly Sy - A journalist’s latest tricks. (Posted on 05/17/2004)

EDITOR'S NOTE: The man behind many of the most provocative Abu Ghraib stories — Seymour M. Hersh of The New Yorker — is one of the best-known reporters in the business. But that doesn't mean he always gets his facts right. "If the standard for being fired was being wrong on a story, I would have been fired long ago," he once said. Hersh has admitted to lying to his sources and one former editor accused him of blackmailing them. Can he be trusted today? John J. Miller profiled Hersh in the December 3, 2001 issue of National Review.

The media on Nicholas Berg: So what? (Posted on 05/18/2004)

The news of Nicholas Berg's gruesome murder came urgently in mid-afternoon on Fox News Channel. Anchor Shepard Smith didn't -- couldn't -- show the video that had hit the Internet. He handled it gravely, correctly. He explained the deadly facts, how masked Muslim fanatics screamed praise to Allah as they savagely sawed off Berg's head -- the head of an American who came to Iraq to help it rebuild.
How would this story grab the American news media? How would it change the media's obsession with much less graphic photos of sexual humiliation of prisoners? Many suggested that since the media wanted to make such a show out of the Abu Ghraib pictures, they ought to do the same with the Berg murder. An endless spiral into more and more gory images isn't the best way to run a news business -- or a foreign policy. But it's instructive that after news reports had touted the public's "right to know" about Abu Ghraib, to see every picture, suddenly, some images weren't supposed to stick in the public mind.
But there's more to this double-standard story. While NBC aired 58 stories on U.S. prison abuse in the first few weeks of that story, NBC aired only five stories over 16 months on the discovery of Saddam's mass graves. Abu Ghraib holds 1,500 prisoners, a fraction of whom were abused. Saddam's graves held as many as 300,000 people, all of whom were murdered. How is Abu Ghraib 10 times more important than that?
Sadly, the distortions continued. With few exceptions, the Berg beheading was at best a two-day TV story, an obstacle to get around, a white-noise distraction from The Scandal. Berg died. The media's take: sad, but so what? That shouldn't register in public opinion. On the very night the Berg story emerged, ABC's "Nightline" couldn't spend more than a few minutes on Berg before Ted Koppel was back to soliciting John McCain to explain what horrific treatment Americans might dish out next.

Soldier arrested over Mirror hoax photos (Posted on 05/18/2004)

Reaction/Counter-Reaction to the Abu Ghureib Abuses in the Arab Media (Look Who's Talking V3.0) (Posted on 05/19/2004)

NOTE: It would be interesting to see how the "resistance" may have increased after this heavy rotation of "imperial abuse"

Roger Ebert: Ovation for Moore's 'Fahrenheit' lasts longer than Bush dawdled (Posted on 05/19/2004)

Media’s Selective Outrage, by the Numbers (Posted on 05/21/2004)

Court TV meets the war on terror (Posted on 05/21/2004)

(Hunter S. Thompson writing for ESPN) Let's Go To The Olympics (Posted on 05/24/2004)

The long-dreaded 2004 Olympics in Greece will be the ultimate crossroads for sports and politics in this new and vicious century. The recent photos of cruelty at the Abu Grahaib all-american prison in Baghdad have taken care of that.
Yes, sir. We have taken the bull by the horns on this one, sports fans. These horrifying digital snapshots of the American dream in action on foreign soil are worse than anything even I could have expected. I have been in this business a long time and I have seen many staggering things, but this one is over the line. Now I am really ashamed to carry an American passport. Not even the foulest atrocities of Adolf Hitler ever shocked me so badly as these photographs did.

Clarke Testimony Discredits Moore's 'Fahrenheit 911' (Posted on 05/25/2004)

Moore interviewed Berg for "Fahrenheit" [index to thread at reply #1859] (Posted on 05/27/2004)

Media's Mission Accomplished: U.S. Troops Now Called 'Baby Killers' (Posted on 05/28/2004)

Berg talks of Iraq's business potential on Michael Moore footage (Posted on 05/29/2004)

New York Times Streak of Page One Stories on Abu Ghraib ends at 32 Days! (UPDATED: 34 of 37 days) (Posted on 06/01/2004)

Soros: Abu Ghraib same as 9-11 (Posted on 06/03/2004)

Lori Haigh: The Girl Who Cried Wolf? (ChronWatch Investigative Report)(HOAXTER EXPOSED) (Posted on 06/11/2004)

Cuba publishes bogus GI rape photos (Posted on 06/15/2004)

MEDIA IS SHOWN TAPE OF SADDAM'S ABUSES AT ABU GHRAIB (Posted on 06/16/2004)

White House Suggests Media Explain Cover Up of Saddam Atrocity Video (Posted on 06/18/2004)

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan denied that the White House had a role in keeping a gruesome video of atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein's regime from the media. When asked by Talon News on Thursday to explain the virtual news blackout of the horrific images of Iraqis being beheaded, tongues being cut out, and fingers being chopped off, McClellan said that he'd "leave it to the media to address those issues."

Roger Ebert: (Fahrenheit) '9/11': Just the facts? (in defense of Michael Moore documentaries) (Posted on 06/21/2004)

Moore film distributor OK with terror support (Posted on 06/21/2004)

Harry Knowles' "Ain't It Cool News" FAHRENHEIT 9/11 review (Posted on 06/23/2004)

Yes, this film does have tangible real world goals, with every sprocket hole, this flick is asking you to not re-elect that Bush dude. This is propaganda.
I love propaganda, it’s fascinating. The study of propaganda has been a part of my life as far back as I can remember.
[snip]
Meanwhile, if you see FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and wished it had been meaner to George, I suggest picking up Ted Rall’s...

Official Ebert review of Moore film (Posted on 06/24/2004)

ALA hosts special screening of "Fahrenheit 9/11" at Annual Conference (Posted on 06/24/2004)

Fahrenheit''s Embedded Cameraman Revealed (Posted on 06/27/2004)

Moore's Film Is Shocking Propaganda (Good Editorial by Ed Koch!) (Posted on 06/29/2004)

Der ewige Jude - The Eternal Jew (Posted on 06/27/2004)

Der ewige Jude ("The Eternal Jew") is the most famous Nazi propaganda film. It was produced at the insistence of Joseph Goebbels, under such active supervision that it is effectively his work. It depicts the Jews of Poland as corrupt, filthy, lazy, ugly, and perverse: they are an alien people which have taken over the world through their control of banking and commerce, yet which still live like animals.
Though unquestionably vicious, many would say that, by today's standards, it is also crude and transparent. The narrator explains the Jews' ratlike behavior, while showing footage of rats squirming from sewers and leaping at the camera. The film's most shocking scene is the slaughter of a cow, shown in bloody detail, by a grinning Rabbi - and it is followed by, of all things, three innocent (presumably German) lambs nuzzling each other.

More on Hezbollah - Moore Flick: Not everyone thinks they're "terrorists"! It's a "natural" team! (Posted on 06/30/2004)

Hezbollah's Hollywood Hero [Michael Moore] (Posted on 07/10/2004)

Ramsey Clark to Join Panel for Saddam’s Defense (Posted on 08/24/2004)

BushGuard august1 memo - a FAKE (Posted on 09/09/2004)

Was Abu Ghraib a CBS Put Up Job too? (Posted on 09/20/2004) (consider that one of the men involved in the crimes was the one who leaked them to the media with the aid of ; is it really that different from the case of Sgt. Akbar who used a grenade to kill 2 officers and injured another 12?)

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I think that the media certainly knew that eyes would glaze over at the prospect of another "impeachment" and that it might cost Kerry some voters in the end. His was a coalition of conflicting opinions carefully held together, in part by offering flip flopped statements depending on the crowd he was addressings. Harder to pull that off grandstanding discussing impeachment.

The media needs to look at themselves in the mirror and see what they have become. Abu Ghraib was the turning point in the war, where public opinion soured and hostilities increased in Iraq. Any book addressing the media bias in the 2004 election HAS to focus on AG (but by no means the only tale in the story). Yes crimes were committed at AG and they WERE under investigation. A number of congressmen were aware of the situation and said nothing.

Adding pictures made it an exploitable scandal. Some took that exploitation so far that they manufactured their own photos and story.

This is a crime of the highest order, a willful attempt to overthrow a President by sheer media manipulation and constant distortion (Zogbyism).

How can anyone even afford a computer and internet access?

Everything sucks. Shouldn’t we all be on line at the soup kitchen and living in tin shanty towns??

The Earth’s temperature has gone up 0.0027354622 percent since President Bush took office, if this trend continues and accelerates, life on Earth will end as that incremental increase balloons to 114 degrees increase cumulative!!!

DON’T PANIC! Bush MUST go by next summerz!!!

MARCH 2004 MID : (SUSPENDED SOLDIER WRITES TO ARLEN SPECTER, R-PA— See ABU GHRAIB, BLEEDINGHEARTATTACK, JOE WILSON, VALERIE PLAME, MEDIA SHIELD LAW) Separately, a suspended Army officer in Iraq wrote to Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania that he was being unfairly punished after “pictures of naked prisoners” were discovered. He sent the letter six weeks before the CBS program “60 Minutes II” first broadcast photographs of the prisoners on April 28 [2004].

HMMM...

NOVEMBER 2006 : (ARLEN SPECTER, R-PA— — See ABU GHRAIB, BLEEDINGHEARTATTACK, NIGERFLAP/16WORDS’S JOE WILSON, VALERIE PLAME “CIA LEAK”, MEDIA SHIELD LAW, NSA WIRETAPPING) Inside the Beltway
“Very odd,” says our source. “They sat at a table in the back.”
Referring to the intriguing trio of Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, and his wife, Valerie Plame, of CIA-leak fame,(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...-——Go figure (Specter, Plame, Wilson having lunch), WashTimes ^ | 11-29-06
Posted on 12/05/2006 11:07:48 PM PST by STARWISE

APRIL 7?, 2004 : (JAPANESE FUTURE "HOSTAGE" POSTS ABOUT A "SECRET PLAN") The following translated message came from one of the so-called hostages prior to the so-called "hostage taking". It can be found at the first link in the above article:

"Noriaki Imai posted in a thread, with the title 'Big secreat Plan!' on April 7, 2004 09:57
'I have met the freelance journalist from Weekly Asahi today! After we chatted a while, he told me a big plan! It might be great. I think this will be a great achievement in history, and miss takato is also interested, so I think it's worth doing.'

That message sounds damning to me. --Boot Hill 15 posted on 04/09/2004 3:22:02 AM PDT by Boot Hill

APRIL 7?, 2004 : (JAPANESE TO TRAVEL FROM JORDAN TO BAGHDAD --- SEE JAPANESE ACTIVIST "KIDNAPPING") Discovered, just now, on the internet in Japanese, and translated by Freeper “AmericanInTokyo”. This is the last e-mail dispatch (yesterday) in Japanese by Mr. Imai, who is reported to have been taken hostage and threatened with death by terrorists in Iraq, along with (2) other young Japanese.
The writings are on a Japanese language website that gives strong indication that the kidnapped Mr. Noriaki Imai was connected to an anti-American, pro-peace activist group in Japan, with activities centering on "DU" (depleted uranium) and the US mission in Iraq. To readers in Japan, he makes reference to his dangerous travel yesterday from Amman, Jordan, to Baghdad, along with another Japanese who is also listed as a kidnap victim. It is now reported he and the other two Japanese never made it to Baghdad, and have been given three days to live by Islamofascist terrorists.
The Japanese website of the kidnapped Japanese Mr. Imai is: http://www.nodu-hiroshima.org/
Further, he writes in his e mail (yesterday) that he his being accompanied by Miss Nahoko Takahashi (who has also been captured and threatened with death). One can conclude that either the hostages were sympathetic to the enemy but are being used by them, or there is perhaps a conspiracy by the “hostages” to get Japan to withdraw from Iraq (since that was the intent of the political homepage, in Japanese, of Mr. Imai and his associates) URL:...

Text:
”E mail from Imai-san, on Wednesday, April 7, at around 3:00 a.m. “This is Imai. I am sending this to various people. I had intended to depart around 6:00 a.m., but now it is 10:00 a.m. and I am leaving. Well, there is a lot of concern about the safety of the situation, but in another sense there are also no concerns about safety, so I am just leaving it up to fate, as it were.
” I met a ‘free cameraman’ at the Cliff (spelling) Hotel, and got along well with that person. He said he is going to Baghdad by chance, both both Ms. Takahashi (note: also a hostage) and he and I will go down there together. I also met, per chance, Ms. Noriko Morisawa at the Cliff Hotel. I talked a lot with her until just now. I also learned that ( also a journalist) Ms. Mizue Furuya is also here in Amman, so I have become a little more happy.
At any rate, tomorrow (it will be near midnight in Japan), I think we will reach Baghdad. After that, we can go with the JVC’s Hara-san to Mansour Hospital as well as Central Hospital. At any rate, it looks like I can move around with Hara in Baghdad for the time being.
Regarding photograph(s), it is difficult to say if I can get photos in Baghdad because of the chaotic situation ,but I did get photos in Amman.
I don’t think I can send another email from Amman, but I should be able to send from Baghdad next time. Of course, I hope it will be easy, but the situation has considerably worsened from yesterday, so I am a bit concerned.
At any rate, I want to pray for the fate of both Takahashi-san and the free cameraman we are with. From, a little nervous Imai.” (Note: Imai is with Ms. Takahashi. And you can access her website from Iraq at http://www.clubwee.com/bbs2/light.cgi

------------ ANTI-USA/PRO-ACTIVIST JAPANESE WEBSITE OF JAPAN 'HOSTAGE' FOUND/TRANSLATED (IRAQ) Noriaki Imai Website (in Japanese) ^ | 8 April 2004 | AmericanInTokyo (Freepranslation/Research) Posted on 04/08/2004 8:48:26 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo

APRIL 8, 2004 Thursday : (IRAQ : MICHAEL MOORE'S HALF-IRAQI CAMERAMAN URBAN HAMID IS KIDNAPPED BY THE "MUJAHADIN BRIGADES" AND DETAINED - FOR A HOUR - WITH SEVEN S KOREAN MISSIONARIES -- See NICK BERG)

APRIL 2004 : (IRAQ : JAPANESE ARE "TAKEN HOSTAGE") To: AmericanInTokyo For what it's worth.... The "Healing Iraq" blog site( http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/ ) has posted a local rumor that the whole "Japanese hostage" thing is a setup. So.... you're [not] the only one wondering about this. 85 posted on 04/10/2004 5:59:03 PM PDT by ArmstedFragg
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The site I referenced is run by an Iraqi dentist who is, at the moment, in the neighborhood of Sadr City in Baghdad. So, the questioning of the legitimacy of this whole thing seems pretty widespread. 89 posted on 04/10/2004 9:16:10 PM PDT by ArmstedFragg
*****
But at any rate, it is leaking out now that one of the Japanese hostages (the female NGO worker) Ms. Takato is now reported to have MADE CONTACT EARLIER IN BAGHDAD WITH AN AFFILIATED ANTI-US IRAQI TERRORIST GROUP CALLED "ARMY OF MOHAMMED". This is being carried in the Middle East press. The terrorist organization is said to be affiliated with the group that is new (one month old) in Fallujah, that claimed responsibility for "kidnapping" the Japanese the other day. Stinks to high heaven.
Further, the Yahoo Japan chat board on this topic (yahoo.co.jp) in Japanese is burning up at this moment.
About one post every 30 seconds. And it would seem about 2 in 3 Japanese posters are saying things like "it's a set up!", and "something stinks", "Koizumi should not meet with these jerks when they get back to Japan" and "arrest the three when they arrive back in Japan for interfering in Japan's foreign policy" and "take their passports away and forbid them from international travel for three years because they are leftist troublemakers", and other posts questioning their leftist affiliations and their mysterious "kidnapping." There is a lot of speculation out there. (10:25 pm Eastern Time)
86 posted on 04/10/2004 7:29:19 PM PDT by AmericanInTokyo

BEFORE APRIL 28, 2004 : (BLEEDINGHEARTATTACK : ABU GHRAIB : RETIRED COL DAVID HACKWORTH HELPS THE ACCUSED "TORTURER'S" FAMILY GET IN TOUCH WITH CBS'S "60 MINUTES" CO-PRODUCER MARY MAPES TO BREAK THE ABU GHRAIB STORY/PRISONER ABUSE MEME) "When the Army refused and the members of Congress replied with form letters, Lawson contacted retired Col. David Hackworth, a syndicated columnist, who helped the family get in touch with Mary Mapes, a producer for CBS's 60 Minutes II, which broke the story." ------- "HEADLINE: Accused of abuse, soldier goes from patriot to pariah; CRISIS IN IRAQ , " BYLINE: Ariel Sabar , The Baltimore Sun, SECTION: TELEGRAPH, Pg. 1A , May 9, 2004 Sunday FINAL Edition , LENGTH: 1721 words , SOURCE: SUN NATIONAL STAFF

We also found, however, that more Americans — 57% — think we're winning in Iraq vs. 51% when we last asked the question in November. One of the biggest changes was among Democrats, 45% of whom now think we're winning vs. 34% last fall.

Which makes us wonder what the percentages would be if the coverage was just a little more balanced.

A certain percentage of Dems would be pressing their palms against their ears and yelling "I can't hear you!" in any case, but it is a valid question. During Vietnam this sort of blatant manipulation was successfully cast as a groundswell of public opinion. Not this time. That's what I told a columnist for the Seattle P-I four years ago to his indignant fury. I said I personally wasn't going to let him get away with it and that there were a lot of me out there. Never again.